BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR CHRONICLES #1 – Review

BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR CHRONICLES #1, from American Mythology on March 30th, 2022, collects the original DC Comics adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s seminal work for a thrilling space adventure about a WWII fighter pilot transported to an alien world.

The Details

• Written By: Marv Wolfman
• Art By: Dan Green, Howard Chaykin
• Colors By: Dan Green, Howard Chaykin
• Letters By: Dan Green, Howard Chaykin
• Cover Art By: Roy G. Krenkel
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: March 30, 2022

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Was It Good?

BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR CHRONICLES #1 is a time capsule of comics adventure from a bygone era. Where strange events could hurl a character with courage and grit into alien circumstances and force him to adapt to survive. Edgar Rice Burroughs is famous for telling these types of classic adventure tales, and DC Comics is (or used to be) famous for capturing the essence of those adventures in visual form. This comic serves as a reminder that when you put the right creators together, anything in the universe is possible.

It wouldn’t be fair to critique the stories as they were originally written as prose from a different time in history and from an author not connected to the comic. Instead, we’ll look at the quality of the adaptation and the artwork.

Marv Wolfman’s adaptation is spot on with a few caveats. This is a collection of backup stories so the page space is extremely limited. In a few spots, you get the impression the lead character adapts and overcomes too quickly to be believed, but again, the nature of the backup format would limit how much development each chapter would allow. Therefore, all the key plot points are present from the original story, and each chapter is a very fast read with conflict and resolution happening very quickly, but the pacing is as good as you could hope for within the limited page space.

Green and Chaykin take the super-fast pacing and give it life with stellar artwork, possibly artwork ahead of its time. Extended scenes of vehicle motion (e.g. car chases) are difficult to pull off in comic format. Here, Green and Chaykin execute riveting and visually dynamic aerial dogfights that tell part of the story. You can follow the ebb and flow of the airships as they chase each other, and the physics of the explosive fights feel graceful.

The artwork is further enhanced by the excellent way Green and Chaykin use inset closeups with wide shot panels to give each scene a visual contrast that adds a human element to the big space moments. We often talk about panel composition in these reviews as generally being good or serviceable, but here, the panel composition is a downright work of art.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

If you’re interested in the full, original story from Edgar Rice Burroughs, pick up a copy of Beyond the Farthest Star today.

An American fighter pilot is engaged in a dogfight against german forces during WWII. Suddenly, his plane is caught in an explosion, but instead of crashing to the ground, his damaged plane is pulled through a portal to another world, Poloda.

The pilot finds himself caught in the middle of another war between the peaceful people of Unis and the war-like people of Kapar. Through a series of adventures, the pilot learns the language and earns himself a local name, Tangor, as he fights to survive and end the savage war before Poloda tears itself apart.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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